The gay Philadelphians, crowned with the laurels of two victories in St. Louis, left last Sunday evening for Bloomington, Illinois, to play the Bloomington Club. Chicago will feel next the weight of their prowess; then Detroit must gird up her loins; and after that Cleveland will receive the conquerors.

On the 4th of July, at Alton, Illinois, the Bluff City Club, the champions of that city, and the Athletics, of St. Louis, will play a match game.

The Junior Empire Club and the Resolute Club, of this city, met on the 13th in an exciting match, and the Empires won by a score of 47 to 13.

The Unions have called a special meeting of their club this evening at 8 o'clock, to transact important business looking to the great contest they are to have with the Empires on next Thursday. This match promises to be very exciting. There is much determination exhibited on both sides to win, and a settled purpose to do all that can be done on either side to settle the question of local supremacy.

The Athletics, bidding farewell to their defeated comrades in St. Louis, expressed themselves greatly pleased at their treatment and at the generous hospitality extended to them, and left a standing invitation for the two clubs to visit Philadelphia.

-Missouri Republican, June 16, 1868

And so we say goodbye to the Philadelphias.

The most interesting thing here is the reference to the Bluff City Club of Alton, which is the first reference to this club that I've ever seen. The only other club that I know of in Alton in 1868 was the Shurtleff College club, although it's possible that the Actives of Alton, who were playing as early as 1866, were still active that season. The reference to Bluff City being the "champions" of Alton implies that there were other clubs playing in the city that season.

At the match game of Base Ball played at Litchfield, August 30, 1866, between the "Prairie" of Litchfield and the "Active" of Alton, the following was the score...(Prairie 64, Active 36)...

The "Prairie" Club victorious by 28 runs. Time of game three hours and forty-five minutes. Umpire, E.L. Metcalf. Scorer E.T. Atwood.Baldwin field captain of "Active" club, Forrester field captain "Prairie" club.

-Alton Telegraph, September 7, 1866

The other day I posted information about an 1867 baseball club at McKendree College, in Lebanon, Illinois, and speculated that it may have been the earliest baseball club on the east-side. After checking my notes, I found the above reference to a baseball club in Alton in 1866. So, to the best of my knowledge, the Active Club of Alton was the earliest east-side club.

In all honesty, I wouldn't be surprised to find evidence of east-side clubs in the summer of 1865, after the war ended, but 1866 makes a lot of sense. The war was over, the game was exploding in popularity and lots of new clubs were being formed. Most of the first clubs that we know of for any given city in the Midwest were formed in this post-war era.

Talking specifically about the St. Louis area, the Empire Club had a great deal of success in 1865, claiming the mythical Championship of the West, and that success most likely played a role in increasing the popularity of the game and the creation of new clubs in the area. Alton also had a rich ball-playing tradition that dated back to the antebellum era and it's not surprising that the first club on the east-side would pop up there.